Today’s comic by Matt Bors is Undoing Obama's legacy:
• At COP24 talks in Poland, World Health Organization says in report that climate action now could save a million lives by 2050:
“The Paris Agreement is potentially the strongest health agreement of this century,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. The report shows that the economic benefits of improved health would be twice as high as the economic cost of mitigating global warming, and fighting air pollution. The return on investment is even higher in countries key to tackling global emissions, such as China and India.
Exposure to air pollution causes 7 million deaths worldwide every year and costs an estimated US$ 5.11 trillion in welfare losses globally. In the 15 countries that have the highest greenhouse gas emissions, the health impacts of air pollution are estimated to cost more than 4 per cent of GDP. By contrast, actions to meet the Paris commitment of keeping warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, would cost around 1 per cent of global GDP, said WHO.
• Newspaper sues to get employer to stop paying deadbeat Blake Farenthold his salary: The former representative from Texas abruptly quit Congress in April, having promised to repay the $84,000 in taxpayer money that he spent to settle a sexual harassment complaint. He never has fulfilled that pledge. In May, the Calhoun Port Authority in Port Lavaca hired him as a lobbyist for an annual $160,000 salary. The Victoria Advocate, a Texas newspaper, has sued for what it says was a violation of the state’s open records law. It claims the authority hired Farenthold without public notice. The suit calls for temporarily cutting off Farenthold’s paycheck until the case is resolved.
• Open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act ends in most states on December 15: If you’ve been delaying, there are just 10 days left if you need insurance! Free help is available. Answers to your questions about signing up and trained professionals who can talk your through your options are just a phone call or click away. Call 1-800-318-2596 or visit localhelp.healthcare.gov to make a one-on-one appointment now.
• Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will hold hearing on missing and murdered American Indians December 12:
Advocates have been calling attention to the issue for years. But little has been done on the national level to find out why Native people of all ages, genders and backgrounds seem to go missing and murdered on a regular basis.
"It doesn’t matter if you are living on a reservation, in a village, or in an urban area, many of the same historical and institutional problems that have led to the appalling MMIWG rates remain," Esther Lucero, the CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board, said upon the release of a groundbreaking report last month that looked into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) in urban areas.
MIDDAY TWEET
• “Fox and Friends” weekend co-host labels CNN’s Don Lemon a “moron”: Pete Hegseth bellyached about being “forced” to watch CNN at an airport Tuesday evening and tweeted that the CNN anchor is a “moron” who spews “liberal orthodoxy.” Hegseth, a combat veteran of Iraq, became executive director of Vets for Freedom, a conservative organization that has in the past called for more U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also for a time executive director of Concerned Veterans of America, a lobbying group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers that advocated for further privatization of the Department of Veteran Affairs. Hegseth was briefly considered to run the department, but he was dropped after extramarital affairs with co-workers and ethical violations at CVA came to light, spurring major veterans groups to object to his being appointed.
• Some residents of the burned-out city of Paradise, Calif., have been told they can return home. The rest will be allowed to return Thursday. More than 14,000 buildings in Paradise and two smaller neighboring communities were destroyed and at least 85 people killed in the worst wildfire in California history. Eleven people are still missing.
• EU Court slams Hungary’s law on libelous links:
The European Court of Human Rights blasted Hungarian courts on Tuesday for upholding a libel verdict against a news outlet whose only “crime” was linking to a YouTube video inside a news story. [...]
The court noted hyperlinks in news reporting only direct readers to potentially related content available on the internet and are not usually presented as a factual part of the news story in which they’re placed.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, WI & MI Gop's assault on democracy continues, and NC wants back in. GHWB funeral keeps Trump mostly quiet. Flynn sentencing memo drops. Epstein settles. Saud family feud story concludes. Stakeholder vs. shareholder debate reemerges for 2020.